Legend of Zelda: Crown of Ages
by Flute Chick
Summary: An old tale passed from one generation to the next. A princess locked within her own heart. An evil ready to destroy the world. A hero destined to save us all. Follow Link on his newest adventure...while he attempts to defeat...high school. Oh, and Ganon.
1. New School Year

**Okay, I want to get something clear here. I have not actually played any LoZ games-don't hate! However, I have, out of curiosity, watched about five or more Let's Plays and walkthroughs on youtube. I plan on getting Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword for myself really soon. Please enjoy-new chapters will come about as often as my other stories. **

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I got up from my nap in the park and sighed.

"Well, another day, another boring weekend wasted," I muttered to myself. I pulled my green (my favorite color, thank you very much) hooded jacket on, as it was starting to get cold out. Heading home, with my hands in my pockets, I shivered. The sun was going doing, and nights in Hyrule were cold that time of year. If I hurried, I could make it to Grandma's before—shoot. The gangs came out.

There aren't many in our town, but you're the luckiest person in the world if you've got a town without even two of them in the world. Of course, my neighborhood doesn't have any—it's just between the park and my house, there are a few shady areas that I try to avoid at dark. But I fell asleep. Again. So in my mind as I walked quickly past was this: _idiot you are so dead why did you fall asleep again you know that grandma will kill you if you come home hurt and robbed and unable to tell who it was because that's what happened last time and these are the same guys and shoot shoot shoot shoot they're following me!_ I did the most reasonable thing then. I rounded a corner and passed through a shortcut between buildings and slipped into the truck bed of some guy's pickup. I pressed myself into the side of it and pulled my hood tight around my face, making myself as small as possible and hopefully they wouldn't see me. I heard their voices some distance away following the sidewalk.

"Hey, where'd he go?" asked one.

"We already got him once, guys, he probably didn't have anything anyway," huffed another. Then the low growl of their leader—for only a leader would tell them to do anything—spoke.

"He's a sneaky one, always running away. I'll get him at school tomorrow and have some fun—maybe you guys can join in!" I nearly gasped. At school? That could only mean their leader was Gavin Sarif, the guy who had been rumored to strangle his pets when he was young, a skill which he had quickly transferred to my friends and I when school started.

"Anyway, it's not like he's the one I'm looking for. Only I wonder . . . perhaps it's time I told you why I call us Din's Powers. You see, there's an old story my uncle—yeah, the one that killed the Hylian veteran—told me. There's this ancient crown passed down by the members of the royal family even to this day that gives the wearer any wish they desire. How idiotic, you're probably thinking that too. But then he told me how it goes with the legends and folklore of the Hero of Time, the Evil King, and the legendary princess. Old records have been translated and retranslated over the years, but still there's a possibility that it's actually true—nothing supports the fact that it's not! And I have an idea. I know where it might be. Even if the wish thing isn't real, it's got to be worth millions!" His goons shouted and hooted a cheer. I shivered involuntarily at his bellowing laughter. It was insane. Magic powers? The Hero of time? Those were just stories. I waited for their footsteps to fade away before getting back to Grandma's.

Of course she scolded me for coming late, but I assured her I just fell asleep in the park.

"Really? You sleep a lot, Link, so I think I ought to keep you awake for a bit to talk. Allie is too young to stay up late, but seeing as you already sleep during the day . . . I think you ought to hear about our family history. Tomorrow you start school at Hyrule High—a boarding school that your parents had me know that they wanted you two to go to. Going to this school will mean that you will be away for some time, without many opportunities for visits, so now's the best time to tell you this story."

"Grandma? Are you sure? It is kind of late, for you too. And I don't have to go to Hyrule Castle High. I mean, I don't want you to be alone . . . and I can just go to the public school . . . I don't mind," I said.

"Nonsense. Now, here is the story as I know it. There are three treasures of our family passed down and preserved by a magic seal for years—don't interrupt about the magic! This is how I was told it as well!—hundreds of years in fact. Do you know why Link is your name, and why some in our family also have that name?" I shook my head.

"That was the name of one of the greatest figures in all of history, your direct ancestor, Link—the Hero of Time, the Hero of Winds, the Blue-Eyed Beast, and probably the most well-known hero throughout time. Of course, these were different Links, but one in particular, the Hero of Time, had three things passed down in our family. These were his tunic and hood, his first shield, and the Ocarina of Time. When they come of age, the firstborns of the family come to own these. Seeing as you're of age, going off on your own . . . I'm giving them to you," she said. I was shocked.

"But, I—this is an honor, Grandma, but—what if someone steals them? And are we really descended from the Hero of Time himself?" My mind repeated Gavin's words of the crown, how it related to the Hero of Time.

"I'm not—it is your mother that was a descendant as well, bless her soul, and not my son—but you are, through and through. Why, you even resemble some of the pictures of the hero. You're a good boy Link. I trust you. And they won't be stolen, believe me." I pushed back a strand of my light hair hanging in my eyes.

"Thank you, Grandma," I said solemnly, and I hugged her. Then I asked if I could see them for myself. She brought me up to the attic and opened up an old chest. The first thing I noticed was the shield, as it was the bulkiest item on top. It was silver with a blue background and three golden triangles in the center—a family crest, I presumed.

Then I lifted it and put it on my arm, marveling at the fact that ages ago, the Hero of Time himself had this shield. Then I looked, and there was the Ocarina of time.

"The songs that the Hero used on the Ocarina have been lost, just like the details of his stories," said Grandma sadly.

"But still! This is the actual ocarina! And this is the tunic?" I asked, picking it up. It was a soft, light outfit, but the material felt stretchy and clean—like it had just been made. Maybe it had preserved by magic after all. Stranger things have happened. Like the guy on the news running into the street proclaiming that someone was after him and he'd been robbed just so he could get a ride home from the police. Yeah, that happened. Luckily, it was in Termina, not in Hyrule's central towns, because that place . . . well, it sure made more sense. People from Clock Town, the capital of Termina, were crazy. **(A/N: That happened. For real. In my town. I'm dead serious. People in my town **_**are**_** crazy. Even me at times—though not that type of crazy. Moving on!)**

"Where exactly will I keep this stuff in my dorm room?" I asked. She laughed.

"You decide, honey. I'm not to coddle you anymore—you're of age. Just take care of yourself and stay out of trouble." I nodded. I wish I hadn't made that promise, because I broke it before I even got there—that's right. On the bus.

I'd managed to hold on to all of my luggage without it all rolling down the hill past the bus. Then I dragged it on, and sat in one of the first few seats so I wouldn't have to crawl over a bunch of people to get out when we were there. I still had my backpack with me so I wouldn't be totally bored in case no one talked with me—I had snacks, my DS, a notebook, my phone, a water bottle, and a book if I wanted to read it. Allie got it for me, so I took it more to remind me of her than to read it. But still, I might look through it—it's a copy of Children's Tales of the Hero of Time. The cartoonish faces were embarrassing, but I traced my finger over the cover—a picture of an ancient painting done by a master of the hero himself. He was obviously bored by the look in his eyes, as he must have been in that epic pose for hours, his arm holding a replica of the Master Sword cramping from staying so high and so still. I snickered to myself, imagining a kid like me.

_I can't feel my arm anymore! Are we almost done?_ I chuckled. Luckily, I was the only one on so far and the driver was, well, driving, so no one would think I was insane. Our next stop led us through a few neighborhoods that I'd never been to. Five kids got on—two girls, three guys. I froze in my seat staring at the book as one of the guys brushed past me, and I tried not to be seen. He sat in back with another, fidgety, pale one with a shaved head. The first one had tanned skin and unnaturally orange spikes of hair. He was tall, buff, and wore clothes like a stereotypical biker. Yes, it was none other than Gavin himself. Another guy sat down in the seat next to me, and the two girls behind me. The guy was tall and skinny, with light blonde hair that hung over one of his eyes. The other, which was visible, was a reddish brown color. He wore a plain navy shirt, with black pants and a light gray jacket with a collar. He smiled at me good-naturedly.

"Hi. I'm Shane Lions." When he offered his hand, I shook it.

"I'm Link Farores." The two girls then leaned over the back of my seat.

"I'm Shane's sister Ella," said the first. She had brown hair in a braid that went down the left side of her face to just past her shoulders. She had bright blue eyes and was wearing a t-shirt and jeans from what I could see. **(Think of Kaylee-don't know if I spelled that right and don't care for this little note-from Quest for Camelot)**The other girl had hair that suspiciously reminded me of Gavin. But she smiled playfully, not cruelly.

"And I'm Mia. The thug in the back is my cousin and his jittery friend is unable to speak more than one syllable without stuttering, so I think his name is Z-z-acher-ry b-but j-just call h-him Z-Z-zach," she said, "But they both should be avoided at all costs. Both of them ought to have a record, but they never get caught," she continued in a whisper.

"Believe me, I know. I went to—I guess I still go to—school with Gavin. Sarif is his last name, right?" I asked.

"Yup. But my last name's Twili—thank goodness, I don't want any connection to that . . . ugh," she decided, since there obviously weren't words to describe him.

"Well, your hair . . ." said Ella bravely, "Does have the same color as his."

"It's the one genetic thing that's cool about him that we share. Other than that, he's a gross, violent, evil scumbag—and I'm not," she concluded. Shane chuckled.

"Mia, I think I will enjoy this school year with you around. It'll lighten the mood. So Link. What's up? Where are you from? Got anything interesting about your life?" I thought for a minute.

"Well, I live with my grandmother and my sister. Gavin hates my guts. I live on 733 Kokiri Lane. Last night my grandma gave me old artifacts of my family and told me I'm descended from the Hero of Time himself." I pointed at the picture. They all leaned over to look.

"Hey, Link, he looks like you a bit. Bet if you had the outfit, you could pass off as the Hero himself. Of course, you'd need the sword and shield, maybe the ocarina too . . . 'course, that would be too awesome if those were the artifacts you got . . . no way . . ." Shane said as my face lit up. Then I leaned back.

"Well, minus the sword, I've got it all," I said to him and the girls only. By now more kids had come on, and the bus was nearly full. I didn't want anyone else to hear—what if they got thieving ideas?—but I figured that these guys at least could be trustworthy friends. Ella looked at me appraisingly.

"You know, Link, I think you ought to wear the outfit to the Halloween dance when that comes around. Maybe get a Master Sword replica to boot. Plenty of people use the fake store bought ones, but sure enough, the real thing has to be cool. Plus, you never know . . . someone might dress as the wise princess herself . . ." she raised her eyebrows suggestively. I turned red, and Shane laughed with Mia at me. I thought fast.

"You wouldn't be thinking of that yourself? I don't blame you; who wouldn't want all this?" I said pompously, flexing my lack of muscles with a ridiculous expression on my face. Ella now turned red with embarassment and annoyance and Mia snorted.

"Link, you are so deluded," she chuckled.

"What, you want a piece of me too?" I joked. She stuck out her tongue in a grossed-out face.

"Eeeew!" I laughed. Finally, we were there. Hyrule Castle High.

According to most people, this was, originally, the royal castle of Hyrule. The paintings of the royal family had been moved to either the vaults in the hidden cellar or the museums throughout the land—at least, that's what textbooks say. The only artifact that remains open to the public and the students is the statues in the foyer of the Hero of Time, his princess, and the evil king. They stood in three corners of the hall. I never saw a picture, but even if I had, it wouldn't have prepared me.

The headmaster, who wore a suit with a red tie, had a kind face as he walked out of the stained-glass doors down the steps. The building was ginormous, made of dark stones, and what had once been a moat was filled with packed dirt and flowers. There was no drawbridge.

"Welcome, freshman, to Hyrule Castle High! I am Headmaster Lions, and I will be taking you through our halls to your dorms. Does everyone have everything they need?" he asked. Silence. Did he really think a bunch of freshmen were going to ask for help? Or did he think that we knew how clueless we all were and wanted to prove it?

"Then off we go!" he seemed pretty nice, if a little overenthusiastic. Though his last name seemed familiar. I looked over at Shane and Ella grimacing when I realized . . . he must have been their dad or uncle or something.

"Now, here is the foyer. We come here to introduce guests and I often find that people like to just relax and enjoy time together here." The foyer was huge—at first glance, you'd almost think it was larger than the outside. Gilded walls and marble columns and floors dominated the area, along with sleek white stairs leading to either side. One staircase had a statue of the Evil King erected before it—a cruel face and a long, flowing cloak were the things I noticed first. It was made of a black stone and shone brilliantly. His hand was clenched in a fist, and a symbol—three triangles, one darker than the others—was on it. On the other end, there was a crystalline statue of rose quartz in the shape of the princess. Her long hair and skirt flowed back as if in the wind, her hands drawing a bow aimed at the king. She too, had the same symbol, with a different triangle more indented. And in between the two staircases, there was no doubt the most impressive statue: the Hero of Time. It was white marble, life size, holding his shield behind him and his sword before him as though he were leading an army into battle. His hand was turned, so I couldn't see if he had the mark or not. The same symbol, though, was shown on the tile floor.

Like the picture, I could only imagine the long hours of holding still. Though, perhaps, this time he was more disciplined than the picture, because the eyes didn't look half-closed and bored.

_All right, first the picture, now this. Can't I take the night off?_ I didn't chuckle this time, but grinned to myself, because it was quiet and that would have been awkward as Headmaster Lions was directing us through the halls. We passed through corridors and he showed us the courtyard and the lunch room—dubbed the "great hall" because of its original name. Then we were taken through the different wings for different subjects, and were given a copy of the dress code, handbook, our schedules, a map of the school, and our dorm assignments. I was on the bottom floor—three guys per room, three girls in the girls' dorms. I ended up with none other than Shane and some guy named Kevin who turned out to be all right. His girlfriend, Angie, was rooming with Ella and Mia.

"They say that whoever dresses up as the Hero of Time the best on the Halloween dance gets to go down to the hidden cellar with his choice of girls," he said as he was taking his stuff to his dresser.

"Link gets to go down with Ella then. He has the real outfit," I thought I heard Shane murmur, but if he said it or not, Kevin didn't hear. Kevin was a short guy with purple hair in a long style—pretty wild, but I figured, considering he was from Clock Town, it wasn't abnormal at all. He put a picture of a girl and him—I presumed Angie—at his bedside table. Our dorm was about the size of a really large hotel room or a really small apartment—right in between. It fit, though, because Shane was really neat and had few possessions with him, and so was I, so that made up for Kevin dumping his suitcase all over his bed et cetera.

"Look, let's go down to the courtyard. We don't have any classes today so we can just hang out," suggested Shane. Kevin and I agreed. We ended up meeting Ella, Mia, and Angie there—along with Gavin and a couple of his goons on the other end.

"Hey, Ella," I said, plopping down on the ground next to her feet. Angie turned out to be a plain girl with red hair and freckles.

"Hi, Link. Has Kevin driven you two crazy yet?" asked Angie, ruffling her boyfriend's hair.

"Nah. He just told us an interesting story though," commented Shane. Kevin repeated the story.

"I heard it from my older brother, who just graduated, so it could be true," he said.

"Well, that's an easy win. That is, if Link can get his hands on the Master Sword as well as the other stuff he has," said Ella with a grin. I then explained to Kevin and Angie about my wonderful costume. I rolled my eyes at the idea of the Master Sword though.

"No way! I'd be put into prison for even setting foot in the Temple of Time—you know no one can go there unless they can prove their reason and clearance."

"Blah, blah, blah. So, who's going to be the lucky spirit maiden princess if you _do_ win?" asked Mia. I thought.

"One of you two," I said, "depending on who had the better costume," I granted. Mia looked disgusted.

"Okay, I won't go as her. I was thinking more . . . dark . . . like the Twilight Princess . . ."

"Isn't that the same person?"

"No! The other one! From the Twilight Realm herself!"

"Oh. Her. I guess it would be Ella if she had a good costume on," I said. I would have rather gone with Ella anyway.

"Please. Like I'm going to look impressive next to an actual descendant of the Hero of Time himself," she said. I frowned; she was a lot better looking than I am—looks of the Hero of Time or no.

"Never mind." We talked about home a bit, and then went back to our dorms. I couldn't sleep, so I began pacing on the patio that our room had—carefully designed so that if you tried to get out past it in the dark, you'd be caught in an instant. I didn't mind; I just needed the fresh air. I heard voices from my right and froze, listening. It was Gavin, Zachary, and someone else I didn't know, but I recognized the voice from the night in the pickup truck.

"Now listen to me boys: the crown is hidden in the cellar of the castle. All we have to do is sneak in when they open it up. If we aren't careful, it'll trigger itself and we could end up in another time—it may be just as story, but I'm not taking any chances, got it?" Two grunts.

"Good. Now, that's not until Halloween, so we'll work out the details until then. The all school Olympics are going to start a week beforehand and end the day before, so we can work on conquering the idiots who think they belong here." The repressed chuckles froze me in place until finally they went away—these guys were _scary_. I went back inside and fell asleep.

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**How did I do, guys? Please let me know. I will have the next chapter up soon, hopefully. **

**Signed,**

**-F-L-U-T-E-*-*-*-C-H-I-C-K-**


	2. Training

**Thank you so much to anidawind and The Band Alchemist for you reviews! I took you advice and tried my best, and you're right, flute **_**is **_**the most awesome instrument. Only, during marching season, I'm in Colorguard instead . . . oh, well. I prefer concert band flute anyway. Moving on . . . enjoy, guys!**

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The next morning, I was awakened by Kevin. Jumping up and down on my bed. Singing some goddess-awful song by a female singer very off-key. Very loudly. I grabbed his ankle at the right moment and he toppled across my feet.

"Dude, way to kill an awesome song," he muttered.

"Dude, way to kill an awesome sleep," I muttered back loudly. Shane threw our backpacks at us deftly, hitting us both right in the guts. I fell back on my bed.

"Do you want to be late to your first classes? Get ready or I'll leave for breakfast without you," he said. I've never gotten ready for school that fast in my life.

We got to the Great Hall and had pancakes that were almost as good as Grandma's (no one can beat her on that one). I looked at my schedule.

_1st period: History_

_2nd period: Physical Education_

_3rd period: Art_

_4th period: Lunch_

_5th period: English_

_6th period: Algebra_

_7th period: Biology_

_*4 hour free/training time*_

_Dinner_

_Lights out at 11:00_

I headed to the history wing and looked for the room marked on my map: Room 106. We were on the ground floor, and there were no windows. Shane was next to me, Ella in front of me, and Gavin and his loyal puppet that I hadn't yet had the pleasure to meet: a scrawny, twitchy guy with white-blonde hair that called himself "Gregory." I think Gregory was bipolar, because one minute he was chuckling, the next, he was shaking in his seat with anger. It made it extremely hard to take notes. Ms. Impa, our teacher, was starting with a general overview of Hylian history.

"Our first recorded history begins with the fall of Skyloft, an ancient civilization. The people of Skyloft were the beginnings of Hyrule, when they elected someone to become their ruler. Years passed, and history fell into legend: the stories of the Hero of Time were recorded, but not well enough for details. The next known event was the Zora war, in which the race of the Zora people flooded Hyrule and the people of Hyrule moved into the desert. This very castle was the underwater palace of the Zora people. Then, the Goron war, in which the water was frozen over, then melted. Using this method as a threat, the Gorons seized the land. Then, about five hundred years ago, humans emerged once more from the desert. There was a meeting of all races, and it was agreed diplomatically where everyone would live according to their needs and how trading and political relations would be handled. The Gorons settled in the mountains, the Zoras in the sea to the south, and we settled in our original homeland while others stayed in the desert. I will ask in class tomorrow for one of you to repeat what I just said in your own words. It could be any of you. That is all for today." I sighed, thanking the goddesses that I was a fast writer and could spout the story right back at her tomorrow if necessary.

Next, I had P. E., where our coach explained the rules of the upcoming all-school Olympics. The champion would get a request of their choice from the school. It could be anything, as long as the student was responsible with what they did with it. There were different events, and each class had one boy and one girl represent them in each event. You could do more than one event, but that almost never happened. And it was set up so the seniors didn't _always_ win. The events were set up at different stations in the gym. There were large signs saying what each event was, as if it wasn't obvious. The coach, as he liked to be called since he was the _only_ coach, said that we would be doing these stations all week. I saw Ella at ARCHERY and Shane at MARTIAL ARTS. However, I didn't even look at who was at the station that I was headed to: SWORD FIGHTING. Turns out, it was Gavin, who was beating the tar out of every opponent.

I picked up one of the swords and put on the safety gear that we were supposed to wear. He started to laugh.

"I think you need to check the girls' sizes, Farores." I said nothing in reply. We bowed as instructed, then fought.

Now, you're probably wondering why I'm not cowering in a corner, begging for mercy, which is what I normally do when I'm confronted with Gavin. But in this case, I didn't care, because I had already trained to the max in fencing with a neighbor of mine. He taught me a bunch of moves—though really, my best one was the one _I_ made up, and no one had seen yet because all I had used it for to date was mowing the lawn in back when it got really, really wild. In any case, I was ready to test it out on him. I first blocked some blows, got blocked a few times, and backed up. I pulled my arm so far back it was painful, and felt tension build up in it. I moved slowly in a circle across from him, carefully calculating whether he was going to attack or not. He wasn't—he was waiting for me, smirking. Then I let loose, releasing my arm from the tension and spinning—yes, spinning—insanely fast and knocking him over in the process. I set my sword on the table, took of the gear, and moved on to the next station.

Of course, no one would let me do so: "WOW LINK! THAT WAS AWESOME!" shouted Kevin from his spot on the obstacle course where he was being tangled in the climbing ropes.

"Thanks," I said quietly. Then others joined, crowding in on me. I kept my face down. Gavin huffed and moved over to try the archery range. Ella was up there. I pushed through the others to watch.

You had a choice of four levels: Easy, medium, hard, and master. Ella was on the medium level ones, getting perfect score after perfect score. She was shredding the arrows on the bull's-eyes in half. Gavin tried the hard level and did the same. Then they both moved up to master level at the same time, in which the targets moved in all sorts of directions—I'm pretty sure they know when your arrow is coming an specifically dodge it. Ella drew her arrow and held stock-still. Gavin shot multiple times and hit mostly bull's-eyes, but one of them, he hit just outside that range, giving him a 49 out of 50 score. Ella was still staring at the targets. There were ten in all, each worth five points if you hit a bulls'-eye. After a minute, she let it loose—and it disappeared with its speed, until I saw it on the back wall of the gym, a path of splinters to show that it had gone straight through all of the targets when they aligned. She had 50 out of 50 in one shot. Ella smiled.

"There was a pattern to their movements, after all. A complicated one, but once you figure it out, a perfect score in one shot is a simple matter of strength and patience," she said. Jaws dropped, including Coach's. Then Gavin was in a rage, moving from station to station, each time slaughtering his opponents until someone tried it with ease and beat him to a pulp.

"That is scary," Kevin said aside to me as Gavin trudged over to WRESTLING, "it's like watching a mad dog search for food or something. He needs to be the winner." Fortunately, he didn't start foaming at the mouth, which he probably would have if he hadn't left most of the wrestlers wincing every time they moved trying to get off of the mat.

"It is. Want to try ARCHERY? At least we know we can't be any better than Ella," I suggested. He chuckled.

"It must stink for whoever is going to go against her in the games. No way will she lose."

"And what about you? You're a hotshot yourself—when it comes to that rope swinging course," I said, and it was true. He had the record.

"And what about you? That sword move was amazing!" he countered.

"Well, I guess so. Maybe not archery . . . hey, want to try the rope course again?"

"You know it!" I beat him at it because he got tied up in the rope—not my fault at all . . . okay, maybe I did do it. Coach had to ask me to cut him down because it was my fault. I did. Finally, that class was over. I went to art class.

"Hello, everyone," said Mrs. Fi. She had a nice, kind face and a sweet smile. She wore bright, artistic clothes.

"Today, I'm going to ask you to paint something that's been on your mind lately a lot. It could be a person, an idea, home—anything. It doesn't have to look real. You can just start with colors that bring out your emotions if you want," she said in a light voice. Some just started splattering paint. Others got to work. I had to think for a minute. What was on my mind? Well, ever since last night with Grandma . . . I got out the water color set from my bin. Then I began with a light sketch in pencil before starting on the actual painting. It was the Hero of Time playing his—now my—ocarina. Other faces were drawn around him like a dream: the princesses that he knew, his friends, a fairy, a wolf, and the evil king looming over him, ready to snatch it all away. If he kept playing, the king would be kept at bay.

_You're not going to win. You don't have power over me. You can't take away who I am. I'm fighting because I have to in order for my friends to survive—you can never really win all the time._ It almost made me think of Gavin. Then, in empty spots, I dripped thinned out brown to look like stained parchment.

"Link, that is beautiful," she said, suddenly behind me. I jumped in my seat.

"Oh, uh, thank you, ma'am," I said.

"You're welcome. Oh, my! Ella, what is this?" she asked suddenly. Ella turned.

"This? This is what I've had on my mind a lot lately. My dad told me about this old story about a crown . . . the Crown of Ages . . . and said it was hidden in the Castle of Hyrule. My mind has been wandering to that old fairytale a lot lately," she admitted. It was a golden crown with elegant imprints and jewels. The three-triangle symbol I keep seeing around was front and center. Mrs. Fi's eyes glittered.

"I've never seen it before. Lovely shading—metal is hard to paint like that," she commented. Ella blushed and nodded, mumbling a thank-you.

Lunch was okay—I had some pumpkin soup. English, Algebra, and Biology are most easily my most hated classes, so I nearly fell asleep in each one if it weren't for Gavin breathing down my neck—or the teacher, in some cases. Finally, it was free time. I headed to the courtyard.

"Ella, you know he doesn't mean anything. His words are equal to the grunts and snorts of an animal in intelligence," I heard Shane say. Then I saw it: Ella in tears.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I don't know! She only said: Zach, Gregory, Gavin . . . I'm worthless," said Shane. I went into super-angry-but-pretending-to-be-responsible-auto-pilot.

"Ella. Gavin is a thug with about as much heart as a rock, and Zach has brains to match. Gregory, as you know, must be bipolar and therefore can be classified as mentally challenged. Together, they're like an insane . . . baboon . . . cannibal. Whatever they said to you, they're wrong automatically, because no one could ever find fault with a girl like you—especially guys like them." Whoa, did that just come out of my mouth? She hiccupped on a sob.

"Gavin . . . stopped me in the hall . . . said I ought to go to the Halloween dance with him . . . told him no . . . said he'd get Gregory and Zach to hurt one of my friends if I didn't . . . still . . . said no. Then he gave me this," Ella pulled up her shirtsleeve to reveal a purple bruise the size of a large grapefruit—or Gavin's fist.

"If he's not below hitting a girl then you did the right thing," I said dully, "I'll make sure he doesn't hurt anyone. Meanwhile, tell Headmaster Lions about that arm. We can at least get him and his cronies detention for that. Shane, can you take her to the office?" I asked. My vision was turning red. I needed to punch something that looked vaguely like Gavin's head. Gregory's or Zach's would work too.

"Okay." I left them there and headed for the gym to find him pummeling every opponent he had on the wrestling mat. Most of them had left, and it seemed like we were alone by the time I got to him.

"That's it, Gavin. I knew you were bad. But when you hit a girl, even if she can take care of herself, you're dead meat to me." He laughed.

"Oh, so puny Link has a backbone after all? Betcha I can get off of you what I missed the night before the bus," his eyes glinted as he said this.

"At least I don't believe in made-up fairytales about magic crowns in the school basement," I snapped. Then his eyes narrowed.

"How'd you hear that one?"

"Two times. Balcony. And in the bed of the truck when you lost me in the alley." He looked like he was remembering, and got angry.

"Wanna get smashed into a pulp, Farores? That's what you're looking at for missing out in the alley back home," he said.

"Fine. Bring it on." I know what you're thinking: me against _him_? He's a giant in comparison. However, when I get angry, I tend to either get stupid, confident, or a combination of the two. Today, it was a combination.

We stood on opposite sides of the mat. On the count of two by him, we came barreling at each other. I didn't dare try and hold on to him, so I rolled to one side and leapt at his head, keeping it in a headlock while dangling there. It was pathetic when he flipped me over, flat on my back, and I lost my grip. He got his knee on my gut and started to pummel me. I knew I had at least one black eye and possibly bruised ribs by the time that I had an idea. I grabbed each of his fists in my hands right before they hit. Before he could register that I'd stopped him, I kicked my leg to make him lose his balance, where he fell. I slipped out from under him, stood, and quickly pinned him to the ground.

"Farores!" he snarled.

"Dinner's in about half an hour. That should give you enough time to go into denial that I beat you," I said. He chuckled.

"It's not over, you know. How are you going to explain that lovely black eye that you're developing? Say it's me, and you're dead meat."

"That won't be necessary," said a voice behind me. I turned—Coach.

"Link, Gavin. I want to talk to you each privately. First you, Gavin, because I trust Link to hold still while I talk to you." I got off of him, and smiled with satisfaction when he winced getting up. I waited about five minutes before watching him storm away grumbling, giving me a really dirty look. Then Coach took me aside.

"Link, I am going to be plain. Do you know Gavin very well?"

"Well, he lives in my neighborhood, and we went to the same school . . . he's the leader of a neighborhood gang if memory serves," I said.

"I see. I'm assuming that you did not get that black eye by tripping on the wrestling mat?" he asked.

"Nope. His fist—and his weight on my gut—hurt a lot."

"And yet you managed to pin him."

"I don't know how. I guess a bit of instinct took over when I thought he was going to break my jaw."

"And why did you confront him in the first place?"

"He and his cronies—Zach and Gregory—beat Ella up and threatened her with her friends if she didn't go with Gavin to the Halloween dance. Guess he carried out his threat on me."

"I was going to have Gavin be our wrestling champion for the freshman team. He'll probably be suspended from the games now . . . good thing, too, that boy actually kind of scares me . . . so I was wondering if you'd like to do it?"

"Me? I don't think I could take a senior if I wanted to . . ."

"If you imagined they were him?"

"Then I'd be scared that I would break the rules." He chuckled.

"What if you thought they were going to hurt you if you didn't do anything?"

" . . . I guess that would work. The same with the sword fighting."

"It's funny how you seem to show unexpected skills, Link. You've surprised a lot of people lately. Keep it up. Oh, and the class champions go against one another in a special course using all of the skills of the events, so try the other stations sometime. I would head to the Great Hall for dinner if I were you. Your friends might be wondering if they need to write an obituary," he said.

"Thanks, Coach." I headed out to lunch, where Ella sat down next to me. No one asked about my bruises as I looked down for one reason: so they wouldn't see them.

"Link? You okay, bud?" asked Kevin after a while, and I made the mistake of looking up at him. He looked horrified.

"What happened! Link, you're hurt!" Everyone at my table turned to me in surprise, and shock spread across their faces in a flash.

"I'm fine. I wounded Gavin's pride a bit more in the process, and I'll take it," I told them.

"_He _hurt you? Link, you didn't have to do that for me!" Ella said despairingly.

"It wasn't all about you—partially, yes, but mostly for everything he's done to everyone. He's not going to be a freshman representative this year for wrestling—I am. Along with sword fighting. But that's beside the point: Gavin needs a lesson. He's not . . . I can't explain it," I finished.

"A very nice guy?" suggested Mia.

"It's more than that." Then I told them the stories I'd heard.

"So . . . he's . . . a gang leader that wants to steal a priceless artifact from the school?" summed up Shane.

"Yes. And now I believe he hates my guts," I said. Kevin pulled something from his jeans jacket pocket: a small notebook.

"That's one more person I need to put fire ants in the bed of," he said. Angie scooted closer to him on the bench.

"Don't forget to put some pink hair dye in his shampoo for me, okay?" she asked. I grinned.

"You guys are the best. But I think he'd kill us all if we even tried."

"I wouldn't worry too much. He's too busy following that imaginary crown," chuckled Mia. I ate my food in peace and we all went to bed.

The next day was uneventful as I got used to the school and everything. I wrote letters to Grandma and Allie, and everything was pretty okay throughout. I felt like I was a broken record player all through September. Finally, October and homecoming came around—for that week, we got to roam about in Castle town, the surrounding area of Hyrule Castle. So my friends and I hung out at the different shops and such.

"Ella, you know they have a Halloween store down the street. Want to check it out with me? We can get our outfits for the dance."

"I don't really _want_ to go to the dance, Mia. Besides, I'm sure there's not a single costume in there that will fit me," she insisted.

"I'm dragging you there, then," Mia insisted.

"I'd pay to see that," chuckled Kevin. He didn't need to as Mia grabbed Ella by the jacket collar of her shirt and pulled her all the way down to the corner costume shop. We followed, laughing as Ella struggled, and Shane took a few pictures with his phone for blackmail. Then Angie and Mia took Ella around the store, picking up costume after costume and deciding to have a mini-fashion show in the back.

Eventually, they found what they wanted. Angie was dressed as a fairy with a glow-in-the-dark dress, Mia had the Princess of the Twili costume she had been looking for, and Ella was dressed as a Kokiri girl with green hair.

"Now it's _their_ turn," said Mia evilly, shoving us all into a corner as the girls ravaged the store once more.

"I'm terrified. Are you terrified?" asked Kevin.

"Completely. They'd better not trick us into girls' outfits," I said.

"If they do that to anyone, it's going to be Kevin," reasoned Shane. Then they handed us each a pile and ordered us to go try each one on. Kevin ended up with a traditional tribal mask with common village clothes from about a hundred years ago—well, the mask looked more like Pikachu than a tribal thing to me. He didn't get the girl's dress. Shane had an old traditional Sheikah warrior outfit. It worked for him. He didn't get the girl's dress. And me? I was, unfortunately, in this: a child's pink fairy princess gown, complete with wings. I got the girl's dress. How I managed to get into it or not realize what it was, I'll never know.

* * *

**And that's that! Poor Link . . . don't worry, I'll get him out of that next chapter. And then we'll have the Olympics! Then Halloween! Then-oh, I can't tell you that part yet . . . *smiles evilly* . . . see you guys later!**


	3. The Olympics of the Godesses

**Hello everyone! We now return to Link, tricked into a pink fairy princess costume!**

* * *

"I hate you all. This is ridiculous. Thank the goddesses I have my own costume," I grumbled, coming back out from changing into my normal clothes after being publicly humiliated. Descendant of the Hero of Time? Yeah, right. If I shared genes with him, somehow I wouldn't have managed to whack myself in the head with the toy Master Sword I bought to complete my costume. When Kevin laughed, I hit him in the head with it. He stopped laughing. Only on the sword fighting arena do I actually have skills.

We skipped on the Homecoming dance completely, as it was mainly a thing for the seniors and juniors at this school. Meanwhile, the Olympics were coming up. I guess I should explain them a little more.

There were eight events: ARCHERY, SWORD FIGHTING, WRESTLING, ROPE CLIMBING, FOOTRACING, MARTIAL ARTS, WEIGHT LIFTING, and PUZZLE SOLVING. The puzzle solving one was actually one of the most difficult, because it usually meant pushing large blocks into certain shapes or figuring out a riddle while fighting off fake monsters. It started with each event separately: the representative from each class would go. 1st place in an event would give your class three points, 2nd would give two, 3rd gives one, and last would be no points. The class with the most points wins, and then those representatives would go through an obstacle course nicknamed 'the dungeon' that involved all of the skills in each event. It was on a Saturday that the Olympics were held.

"Gooooood morning, students!" said Coach on the announcements.

"Please head to the football field for the Olympics! Those who are participating, please report to the north end, and those who are not, follow your teacher's instructions." I headed to the field and saw the group assembled at the stage: it was Kevin, Ella, Shane, Angie, Gavin (I guess he did the weight-lifting), Mia, and a guy I didn't know very well named Shad. He was on the Puzzle Solving.

The first event was MARTIAL ARTS, so I watched Shane start with the sophomore that he beat in seconds. Then the junior and senior went, and the senior won easily.

"You all had better watch out. This kid's head is gonna roll," grinned the guy as he stood up against Shane.

"GO HOME FRESHMEN!" roared a bunch of senior guys. They began to chant over and over until they were threatened with detention.

"Come at me," Shane said. The guy smirked and they circled one another. Before long, they were a flurry of kicks, punches, and moves I swear that they took straight from the Matrix.

"GO SHANE!" Kevin screamed. Then Shane pinched a spot on the guy's shoulder and his entire right half of his body collapsed. With that dead weight, he fell to the floor.

"I win," Shane told him, and Coach dragged the guy off to the side until he recovered a few minutes later. Shad got first in PUZZLE SOLVING—they had to get a pattern of buttons to all turn green, but every time you pressed them, certain other ones changed either green or red, so I would have failed. Ella did the same in ARCHERY as before-a perfect score in one shot. Gavin . . . unfortunately . . . blew away the competition in weight lifting. Angie came in third for FOOTRACING, and then Kevin won ROPE CLIMBING. I was up next for WRESTLING, then finally SWORD FIGHTING. First, I went up against a sophomore. He had red hair in an odd style, weird yellow eyes,

"They call me Goose because my last name's Igusa. **(That's what they called a kid in my class with a similar name back in grade school)**. You're going down, pipsqueak." I rolled my eyes as he grabbed me by the arms and swung me around. I landed on my feet when he let go.

"What was that? A merry-go-round ride?" I asked, wiping my hands on my sweatshirt like it was dirty. Then I grabbed him by the wrist and twisted to be behind him. I then kicked the back of his knees so that he fell over, and sat on his back until the match time was over. He grumbled something and stormed away. Next, a junior that was fast, but not too hard to beat. Even easier than "Goose". Therefore, I was first.

Finally came the SWORD FIGHTING, by far my favorite. The first opponent was a sophomore girl—Rita—who smiled at me as we came in. I didn't get it—was she trying to throw me off? It appeared so, as she pretended to have no skill, then suddenly came at me with a vast array of moves. I blocked every one, and when it came down to it, I twisted my sword and swung down _hard_, knocking hers to the side. She pouted as I moved on to the junior guy who'd won against the senior girl—the guy was Ms. Impa's nephew. He was good, but I think I was much better. His moves were in patterns, so I could always guess what was coming next—when, finally, I hit his blade and sent it flying. I caught it by the hilt and grinned.

"The freshmen win! Now, we will see them navigate this year's dungeon!" shouted Headmaster Lions, seeming pretty proud that we won. A large crate was hauled in, and before long, a gigantic cage with three different levels and obstacles inside was set up from its contents within ten minutes. I was more impressed with the speedy build than the cage itself, and that was saying something. It was almost as tall as the school, and covered most of the field. I looked at the others. Everyone seemed as shocked as I did. The upperclassmen were chuckling at our reactions.

"May I drop out?" asked Shad. "I'm only cut out for the puzzles, you see," he explained. Coach frowned, but let him sit with his friends and watch us all, like he was collecting data on a project.

Each level had three "rooms". The final room had the prize in a little fake treasure chest, where you'd get your prize if you won. I shrugged off my slight nerves and we all went in when the whistle blew. The first room we entered was simple enough to me: you had to lift the matching colored rocks onto the pedestals of the same color. When I picked one up, I realized that they were much heavier than I thought. The others began examining the door, and Gavin just smiled and stared around the room, mostly at me. Once I finally got all the rocks in place, the door opened and everyone looked in shock back at me, but then ran ahead. Great. I was doing all the work. Gavin sauntered in behind me to the next room.

This room had enough bows and quivers for each of us, but only three arrows each. The targets were moving all over the walls, quickly and at random, so you couldn't even see the door. I looked for a pattern, the way Ella had. The whirring of them moving began to repeat itself . . . I could hear it. Suddenly, I heard Ella humming it as well. Every few seconds, I saw three spots where a large amount of targets overlapped. I waited for it to happen, and _twang! Thud!_ Bull's eye. One . . . two . . . three . . . _twang! Thud!_ And a third time . . . and I was done. There were still others moving, but when I turned, Ella had hit them all in one shot. The door was revealed. I opened it and realized the others were keeping their arrows—until they dropped them at the door. Gavin kept his, smiling. A sign said to leave them if you had them, so I turned.

"Drop the arrows, Gavin."

"Why should I?"

"The point is that we're supposed to work our way through—you're just going to let us do everything and then take the best cheap shot you can. Drop them or I'll take them and throw them out of the cage," I said. He dropped them. Meanwhile, the others had found that we had to run across the room quickly—because the floor collapsed into a five-foot deep pit of plastic balls like at the kid's party places after you stood on it for a while. Then it folded back out for the next person to go.

"Ladies first," said Kevin. Angie glared at him and muttered something that sounded like "coward". Ella dashed across. Then Angie. But when Mia went, she fell into the pit.

"Guess I'm out, guys," she said as the floor folded back over her head. Shane went next.

"You all right, Mia?" he asked when her head popped out again.

"I like the dark; I'm fine. I'll get out when all of you get across, I guess." Kevin fell in, too. The rest of us got across, and the floor opened up completely. We climbed the ladder and came to the second floor—ropes hanging right over the pit we'd just ran across.

"Well, here goes nothing!" I shouted, sprinting and leaping for the first rope. I swung somewhat like a monkey and was the second to get across because Ella and Angie had gotten ahead, but Angie stopped to check on Kevin way below. Gavin was behind me, and Shane was right beside him. The next room only had a wrestling mat on it. On the door, it said, "Pair up—three champions shall pass. But there were five of us. Gavin stood in a corner as Ella and Angie, and Shane and I, wrestled. Ella and I won. We passed on to the next room—Martial Arts—where we had to defeat little wooden warriors that moved left and right. Ella was left behind there. Gavin and I climbed the next ladder—two rooms to go.

"Just you and me, Farores," he said as we hit the puzzle-solving room. There were lines and circles on the door. I tapped one—it was a hollow bump on the door that made a sound—and then the others, which made different ones.

"Hm . . ." I mumbled. Then I stood in the center of the three triangles on the floor. I hummed the pattern of notes the different circles made, and the door opened. Gavin followed me in—Sword fighting.

"That trick won't work again, pipsqueak," he said, grabbing the largest sword in the room. I grabbed the nearest one, which was smaller, but better suited for me anyway.

"Who says I don't have another one ready?" I said. I looked around the room, seeing slots in the floor—that must be where we have to put all of the swords, I thought. Then I began moving.

"Well, this last door, from what I hear, closes the second someone crosses, so only one person can win. That's whoever wins this sword battle, Farores."

"That's me," I said, slashing suddenly. He knocked me back. I rolled out of the way before he could maim me—I don't think anyone realized the actual danger of that happening. I rolled over one of the slots, sticking my sword in and grabbing another from the wall in one move, before charging him. I don't think he noticed how many times I did this, until I had the last sword in hand, and they were all sticking out of the floor randomly.

"What's with all of these?" he muttered.

"Guess they move?" I asked innocently. He proceeded to slash like crazy, pushing me into a corner. But that was actually a good thing, because then I jumped, pushed off of the wall, and knocked his sword flying. He then grabbed mine, I grabbed his, and he had me on the floor holding the sword like a gigantic weight above my head—which was what it was with him on top. He finally slashed down and I flipped the blade over to catch it—in the split second that took, I had gotten up. Then I twisted my sword and his flew right into the slot behind him. I rolled over my shoulder to slam mine into the ground before making it through the door. There was a trophy with a little mini hero of time on top. I grinned and held it up before taking the ladder down.

"You may ask the request whenever you like, Link, and within reason, we'll give it to you," said the Headmaster in the closing of his speech. I nodded and the guys and I partied in our room with pop, chips, and general junk food. I think Kevin managed to throw all our trash away into Gavin's room, but I'll never know for sure. He was already as angry as possible with me, so who cared? He didn't scare me so much anymore.

* * *

Dreaming that night—might have been the old pizza—was super weird. I was standing in a field with that sword in my hand. Upon further inspection, I realized the sword was none other than the Master Sword. Then three lights appeared before me—one red, one blue, one green.

"What? Who are you? Where am I?" I asked.

"The boy will never do. His father should have been the one," a voice from the red one spoke.

"His father served in a place of honor and had her blessing, however, I agree with you for once, Din. That was an unwise choice, Farore, to choose the child as the hero," said the blue one.

"The boy can hear you," the green one chided, "and we are not here to discuss my decision. Need I remind you that your choices are also his age, and that the Hero of Time himself was much, much younger?" The others were silent.

"Who are you?" I asked again. The blue one addressed me.

"We are the three goddesses that you so often pray to. I am Naryu, goddess of wisdom."

The red one introduced herself as Din, and the green one was Farore.

"Why am I here?" I asked.

"We have come to warn you. The Crown of Ages is powerful, and contains the power to travel through large spans of time."

"Like the ocarina?"

"No, because the crown will not take the user where they wish. It will take the user through the ages of history, one time to another, without warning. When it was created, it was not as it is now. But that does not matter. Should you find the crown, know this: you will be sent on a journey through time, from one reign of Hyrule to the next. You will have a companion, the chosen of Naryu, and a rival, my chosen one. You will find you predecessors and begin to discover the destiny that lies before you. All the while, you shall find friends, enemies, and you will recover your past selves," Din, the red one, explained.

"Past selves?"

"You are unaware of the true stories . . . but through the quest, you will learn the truth. Time grows short. Link, know that you are worthy of the title of my chosen hero, for I am Farore, goddess of courage," the green one said, and the dream faded away.

* * *

I got up and realized it was Halloween. I was alone in the room, and my clock read 9:36.

"Of course," I muttered, "now the guys are gone because they ditched me for the parties in the classes that the teachers hold. Just great. I'm probably not missing much though. Except candy . . . and I can just swipe the extras from Kevin whenever. He won't care." I was just sitting on my bed for a while before I finally got up, took a shower, and got dressed in my costume. I didn't have to show up for classes today, thankfully. I wanted to see about the outfit, too—while putting on the tunic, the thought crossed my mind that it fit me perfectly, which was a surprise considering it wasn't originally made for me or anything.

I fit the hat on my head and was surprised that it didn't fall off immediately—I didn't see how it could stay on—but it did. I put the ocarina in one of the small pouches secured to the belt, put the shield on my back, and picked up the plastic Master Sword. I humored myself to look in the mirror, thinking, _What a laugh this will be._ When I looked, I could have passed out then and there. And it wasn't because Kevin put a post-it note in the corner telling me that he wasn't letting me have any of his candy, and Shane was in on it. No, I didn't get a note from Ella asking me to meet her in a closet for a bit of seven minutes in heaven. No, it wasn't any of that. This was seriously scary.

* * *

**What is freaking Link out so much? What was _with_ that dream? Why am I asking you if I'm the author? To build suspense, of course. But we've got enough of that. Please leave a nice review by clicking on the box below, please and thank you! I'll see you next time!**


	4. The Costume Prize

**Hello peoples! I would like to address some things here for the reviewers of the previous chapter!**

**Reyser: Yes, it is a Link/ Zelda pairing, but that shows more in the later parts of the story (at least, that's what I plan when I get it written), as Zelda is not currently present. **

**ScRamb1ed: Thanks, me too. :)**

**Another thing that anidnawind brought up to me (thanks so much! I was going to explain it but completely forgot), so everyone please read this:**

**I did not intentionally make a ton of OC's. I wanted, except for Link, to make everyone have names that were recognizable and normal for today. I just couldn't find one for Shad so I gave up on him. Just to be clear, I'll list them below: **

**Mia: Midna**

**Shane: Sheik (he's his own person in this, not Zelda)**

**Kevin: Kafei (I know he's OOC but I needed a bit of comic relief)**

**Angie: Anju**

**Allie: Aryll**

**Gavin: Ganon**

**Zach: Zant**

**Gregory: Ghirahim**

**Goose: Groose**

**Rita: Ruto**

**Darren: (who is mentioned in this chapter) Darunia**

**Headmaster Lions: King Red Lions**

**If I missed anyone, please let me know (and I'll let you know now that Ella is not the case for these, and even if she was, I wouldn't tell you so. Now, to the anticipated chapter four!**

* * *

I looked _exactly_ like the Hero of Time. I even picked up the storybook again and looked between myself and the picture. I didn't do anything different with my hair or anything, and I wasn't wearing makeup, contacts, or a mask. The same blue eyes stared back at me in the mirror like always, but only now did I notice the similarities between mine and the painting.

When I looked between myself and the book . . . well . . . it was super creepy. I mean, you'd think after who knows how long, the family resemblance would disappear, right? But not this time. I was a twin with my ancestor. After about half an hour of doing nothing, I decided to prepare a bit of fun—I could definitely scare Kevin and Shane with this to get back at them. So I wrote a note and hid on the porch.

I heard their voices inside soon and eavesdropped to see when they were in a good spot for me to jump in.

"Hey Shane, have you seen Link?"

"No. I wonder if he's out looking for us. Maybe we shouldn't have let him sleep in?"

"Are you kidding? He sleeps like a rock. It would have taken forever to get him up! Oh, look, a note."

"What does it say?"

"_Dear guys: Hahaha, very funny. I'm still going to take some candy one way or another, Kevin. By the way, I heard a weird noise outside and saw something really freaky— _It stops there, and a line drags of the page like someone knocked into him." They both turned towards the porch, and I stood up and came into the room. Both of their eyes widened.

"Dude, what in the world? Is this real?" asked Kevin.

"Hello," Shane said to me cautiously, and slowly asked, "Where's Link?" I tried not to smile as I pulled out my sword.

"Link?" I asked roughly. They nodded. "Gone."

"What happened to him?" asked Kevin. Before I could say anything else, I cracked up. I couldn't stop laughing for a minute, and they looked like I was insane. I wiped a tear from my eye and grinned.

"Guys, I can't believe you didn't recognize me!" Both of them looked confused.

"Huh?" asked Kevin. I took off the hat.

"Honestly, I didn't put on a mask or anything! How is it that hard?" I asked. Shane squinted.

"Wait . . . LINK!" he said, pointing at me. I bowed and grinned.

"The one and only. Took you long enough. Kevin was still staring. Then he looked at the storybook on the shelf.

"But—you—him—how?" he asked.

"I was just as surprised when I looked in the mirror. Haven't got a clue. Anyway, this'll be fun to make the others guess, huh?" I grinned.

"Mia will never guess it's you," grinned Shane.

"Neither will Ella or Angie," said Kevin.

"You guys get ready. Don't mind me," I said, plopping down on my bed and closing my eyes. Minutes later, they were ready, and we headed down to the gym.

It was decked out to look like the ancient ruins of the castle if it had been torn down. Torches lit with fake flames made up for the lack of strobe lights (I think they did that so Gregory wouldn't have a seizure, although I think the flames may have been worse.

I looked around to find Ella as Shane and Kevin followed me in. Some dance music was playing, and I surveyed the crowd for costumes. About half of them were dressed as the Hero and the Princess, and things that were related to the story. The rest were in classic costumes like witches and cowboys. And then the lazy people were in normal clothes with red or black lines on their faces for "injuries".

Finally I spotted Mia in the Twilight Princess outfit, with Angie and Ella with her.

"Shane! Kevin! Who's your friend?" asked Mia. Shane grinned.

"Hi Mia. You know him," was all he said. Ella, as that Kokiri, smiled.

"Mia, how could you not see it?" she said, fixing her skirt. Angie didn't seem to join the conversation, and I realized that she and Kevin had long since left to dance with one another.

"Come _on_ Mia, are you blind?" asked Shane. I just grinned.

"Ella, wanna dance with me, since you figured that it's me?"

"Of course, Link." Mia's jaw dropped and we were lost in the music soon afterwards. I realized that the recurring base line, behind the tune of the song, was the same whirring from the targets in the dungeon.

"Hear that?" Ella asked. I nodded. She began to hum, and then asked me if I knew how to play the ocarina. I sort of did, so I nodded.

"Try playing B, D, A, G, A, B, D, A with the rhythm of that." **(That would be at least the beginning of Zelda's Lullaby. I double-checked with both my flute and piano that those were the right notes for the concert key.) **I took it out and started playing. I realized that under our feet, three golden triangles were starting to glow on the floor as I played. I stopped before anyone else would notice.

"Did you see that?" I asked.

"Well, you're holding the Ocarina of Time," she pointed out. Luckily, it was short enough that no one noticed but us, and the music was loud enough that no one looked at me with my ocarina. Too soon, they called up everyone dressed as the Hero of Time. There were a few more than ten of us. One of them seemed to be that Rita girl's boyfriend, as she was dressed as the princess and kissed him senseless on the way to the stage. I averted my eyes.

I was on the opposite end from him, and Headmaster Lions in a vampire costume was going from one person to the next to ask for their name. Starting with that guy, he introduced each of us.

"I'm Darren," he said. He looked more like a Goron than the Hero of Time. A few others also said their names. We all were itching to get off the stage and not be stared at. Then each awkwardly said their name, and tried not to be noticed with their store bought costumes or cardboard shields. I didn't like the looks of people staring at me either, even though it was for a different reason entirely.

"I'm Link," I told them all. Lions chuckled, and whispered, off-mic to me.

"You shouldn't be nervous. You've won already." Then he turned to the partygoers.

"Who wins this? Shout their name!" Rather than the muddled chaos I expected, the result was unanimous.

"_**LINK!**_" everyone shouted.

"Well, then, you get to take a friend down to our infamous cellar. Who will you take?" I looked out at the crowd.

"Ella Lions," I said, and she somehow climbed through the crowd to my side.

"I will take you there, then. The other chaperones will continue the party. Come with me," he said, and people cheered as the music started to play again.

"Loser," was all I heard from Gavin as we passed him. I didn't care much. Him and his cronies were all just dressed in black cloaks. We were in the foyer yet again before I could know it. It was strangely dark, but Headmaster Lions had a flashlight, so he turned to both of us when we stopped at the statue of my doppelganger.

"Now, I'm going to ask you two to be responsible. If anything from that cellar is found anywhere in the school, I will automatically suspect you, and no funny business," he said in a suggestive tone. I felt my face turn scarlet with the thought.

"No problem sir! And I think I found my request of the school . . . can I go down to the cellar whenever I want, with friends when need be?"

". . . normally, I have students close their eyes when I open it up. Alright then, Link. Ella, close your eyes. Link, don't show anyone how to do this yourself. Understand?" I nodded. Ella closed her eyes, and Headmaster Lions traced the three triangles on the pedestal that the statue stood on. It then slid backward on its own. Ella opened her eyes and he handed us the flashlight.

"Be back in your rooms by one. Tomorrow is a day off, but I don't want anyone in there tonight that shouldn't be. Happy Halloween." He swept his cloak dramatically and strode out.

"Shall we?" Ella asked.

"Ladies first," I said, and she chuckled as we descended down the stairs. The first thing I noticed was the smell: It wasn't dusty like it should have been. It was clean, but not sterile . . . in fact, it reminded me of my dorm room, with a hint of what I could have sworn was some type of flower.

The staircase seemed to go on forever, but I could still hear the echo of our footsteps very loudly all around us, and the faint grind of stone against stone when the statue closed itself up.

It was when we hit the bottom that I started getting a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach that suggested we were not alone. The room was huge, at least as big as the gym. There were artifacts all over from every race and time period imaginable. On one wall, old books were stacked as high as possible, and I chuckled at the thought of taking one from the bottom. Ella, meanwhile, was looking at the suits of armor and the weaponry.

"I'd never trust a couple of freshman with sharp, pointy stuff like this," she said jokingly, hoisting a spear, then setting it back down.

"Well, the trusted Gavin with that sword." With that, we both laughed out loud, and walked around in silence for a little bit. There were hundreds of paintings and tapestries, as well as stained-glass windows that had been saved and taken out of the walls that they'd once been in. The Zora girl in one of them looked strangely like Rita, and I could have sworn that the Goron was Darren. I showed Ella and she nodded in agreement.

But nothing compared to the crown.

We found it on a pedestal behind a few suits of armor. It was like the one in Ella's painting exactly. I didn't dare touch it, afraid if I picked it up I'd drop and dent it or something. The three triangles design with a border around it—now I knew it as the Hyrule royal family crest from history class—was on the front of it, and diamonds and rubies lined the bottom. It wasn't gaudy like the crowns in fairy tale picture books, but it was really amazing. I also thought to myself that the odd flower smell was coming from the crown.

"This is it . . . the Crown of Ages . . ." I murmured. Then, out of nowhere, a shout of triumph came from behind me, reaching for the crown. Both Ella and I reached for it as well to stop the stranger, and the world exploded in a golden light.

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**And they all woke up in their beds, the end. Not! Anyway, I probably should list the pairings, but I'm lazy so I'll just do the important ones. **

**Kevin/Angie**

**Mia/Shane**

**Link/Ella AND Link/Zelda later.**

**Stay tuned for the next chapter! :)**


	5. Spirits and Journeys

**Here's the next long-awaited chapter!**

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The three of us landed on what felt like hard-packed dirt—too soft to be stone. It was too dark to see anything.

"Ugh . . . where are we?" asked the rough, low voice of the cloaked person that was currently crushing my ribs with his weight. Then it took me about two seconds to realize who it was.

Gavin.

"You!" I shouted, and before Ella or I could do a thing, he was off of me and running. His footsteps went silent after a while, and I didn't care—after all, he could find his own way back. I tried to look around and somewhat succeeded when I knocked into what turned out to be a torch on the wall—also packed dirt—which was unlit. But when I touched it, it burst into flames.

We were in a cave-like circular room with torches on the walls. Eight caverns led off in different directions. There was a faint light coming from above in the one behind us, but the one directly to my left had whispering voices echoing from the other end.

"Do you hear that?" I asked.

"Yes," Ella said, "And here's the crown. It came with us. Let's go check it out." As we walked down, something big and dark brushed past me quickly, but I had no time to see what it was.

"Probably Gavin." And it probably was. We finally came to the end, where there were no voices, but a fire on different torches in the corners. The floor became sandy when we got closer.

However, the two figures that stood frozen before us were far more interesting. One was a generic female Gerudo pirate, twin swords raised in defense. Her red hair was pulled into a high ponytail. The other, standing on pirate girl's left, was a Goron with a hand extended, like he was going to give a friendly handshake.

I'd never actually seen a Goron in real life until that moment. They seemed much more intimidating up close. His tribal tattoos, I learned in history, were flames that represented that he was a leader. I timidly got closer to him—Ella was doing the same with the pirate. An empty circle in the sand to my left indicated that someone or something had once stood there as well.

_Gavin's past self,_ a voice told me in my head. It sounded like Farore. _So . . . this Goron . . . is me? _I asked. No reply. I reached out to touch the outstretched hand and touched it. Immediately, my vision went dark and blurred, like a wet newspaper, and memories rushed through my mind that I I didn't have before.

Some of these memories included being a young Goron, befriending a little human girl for some time, her disappearing, growing up, defending the castle from pirates, and running into her again . . . running away with her when bounties were put on our heads by a madman . . . and not making it out of the house fire alive, just barely getting her . . . _Elena . . . _out before the rocks collapsed on me. I blinked and opened my eyes. I turned.

"Ella?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"They disappeared. Are you . . ."

"I'm Elena, I think. And you're Link-Goro," she smirked. That's how he—I'd introduced myself to Elena originally, stuttering.

"Not funny," I said, "What happened after the house fire?" Her face darkened.

"It was started by the same guy that made our dead bodies worth so many rupees. When I got out, we fought. I slit his throat and he stabbed me with a poisoned knife at the same time."

"Oh . . . I think that might have been Gavin," I admitted. She nodded.

"It only makes sense. Here's the crown," I picked it up. "Must have dropped it after touching his hand," I commented. Ella looked at it with a strange expression.

"Wasn't it more . . . complicated . . . earlier?" The gems on the crown had disappeared. All of them.

"Huh?" Gee, I sounded smart today. I looked at Ella again. The green hair that was so cheerful did _not_ go with her expression—she seemed a thousand years old with those blue eyes. It didn't match the childish Kokiri dress whatsoever.

"That outfit doesn't suit you," I found myself saying.

"I would be offended if I didn't agree. But there weren't any outfits that I liked in the store, so I didn't bother. This was the best one," she explained. She proceeded to fix her skirt, tugging a thread on the fraying edge.

"Let's get out of here. There has to be a way," I said. She nodded and we headed back to the center of the cavern. I ran straight into Gavin.

"Idiot," he grumbled, shoving me.

"Do you want out of here or not?" I asked. His smirk was the type that made me want to give him a high-five. In the face. With a chair. Made of steel. **(If you know where I got that from, say so and I'll give you an air cookie! They're so sweet!) **

"Not really. Why be a pathetic little bully when I can get all the power I want here?" he gestured around the cave. I snorted.

"All right, I'll just leave you here to rot," I held the crown out to Ella. She grabbed it, and unfortunately, so did Gavin. The gold light blinded us yet again. This time, however, we ended up in the field again. The three lights took form before us—they were somewhat shaped like human women in long dresses.

"Link," said Din in a chiding tone. I looked behind me, seeing Ella and Gavin, frozen in place. Apparently, I was the only one who could move at the moment.

"Gavin is not to touch the crown until you know the truth of it," Naryu continued.

"Can't you just tell us?" I asked. Farore chuckled and shook her head.

"Link, I would happily do so if it were possible. But this is something that must happen bit by bit. You now have the power to take the form of your past selves when needed, but I wouldn't recommend doing so in public. Luckily enough for you, you only have to go through six other caverns, then bring him along. But I hope, for your own sakes, that he doesn't come," Farore said, looking hopefully at Din, who glared back.

"We are _not_ going against our own contract in this case just because they are all children! That bound us _all_, you included!" The golden light flashed again, and we were in the cellar—minus Gavin, who I guess was sent to his room.

"Let's go back upstairs," Ella said quietly. I nodded and we headed back to our rooms. Din's voice echoed in my head. Contract? What contract would bind a goddess?

Gavin avoided us like the plague, and his little cronies were no different. Although this was a relief on our part ("The smell was getting to me," as Kevin said) it worried me. Would he really listen to the goddesses?

I trudged through classes, which were more my usual school-speed after Halloween. I hated biology and algebra with a burning passion that would never cease until I could burn the books. English was okay, as we went through the poetry section of our textbooks. Soon enough, we were going to sign up for the ski trip up north in late November. Ella was almost as hyperactive as Kevin with excitement.

When asked, she would reply, "I love the mountains. End of story." Of course, there must have been more than that, but I ended up not asking—she would then squeal and babble about what she was going to do when she got there.

Kevin and Angie declared that they were not coming, which surprised me until I realized that they were going to hang out with each other. A lot. Mostly alone.

I tried not to think about it too much. But we all managed to get some plans together.

"I'm going to go skiing, and then maybe check out the caves. They're supposed to be really warm because of the hot springs," said Shane.

"Sounds like fun. The caves, I mean. I was thinking about going stargazing—they have to be really clear in the mountains," sighed Mia.

On the bus that would take us there, I noticed how few people were actually going. There were about two hundred freshmen in our class, and about the same number for the sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Only about twenty total were going, and most were freshmen like me. Ella, Shane, Mia, Gavin, Zach, and Gregory

A sophomore—the only one on the bus—explained it to us as the bus began to drive through a tunnel.

"You little freshies haven't heard the legend?" he chuckled, "Okay. About fifty years ago, some kids on this trip went exploring in the caves alone. The teachers had told them not to. It was an ancient Goron settlement that they'd stumbled upon… the ghosts of the inhabitants still roamed the streets, guarded the gold… they were to wrestle, race, and win against the ancients to be let out with 'a ruby relic'. Only one survived, but that was because he hid and escaped before disappearing like the others. No one ever comes on this trip anymore except for the freshmen that don't know, and people who aren't stupid enough to believe in little ghost stories," he said, leaning back.

Mia rolled her eyes and said, "Goron ghosts? Yeah, and my parents managed to hide my lineage from me, and I'm secretly the Twili lost princess. What kind of an idiot do you take me for?"

At that precise moment, the bus doors opened and a rush of cold air seemed to slap our faces, telling us we were not welcome. Still, we got off of the bus and followed the chaperone to the lodge.

* * *

**How lovely. A haunted mountain. And what's up with Ella? Stay tuned to find out!**

**...yeah, you'll see. Okay, see you later guys!**


	6. The Goron Village

**Phew, guys, that took forever. I just wasn't feeling this chapter until near the end. Excuse me for taking so long . . . life kind of got in the way. I'm not sure if I'll be updating very often in general, as my grades are already in danger of suffering because of the busy theater club schedule. That should slow down now, as we just had opening night last night and will be done Sunday (Grease is the word, isn't it lol?). It's the first time we've sold out all four shows and I'm super excited about it, so excuse me for gushing about it as well. I'm open to comments and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

Shane and I were in a room together. However, we were hanging out in the lobby with Ella and Mia. We were trading ghost stories, and then normal stories, and then somehow I managed to tell them what happened in the cellar without actually sounding like a loon—I pretended it was a legend, and they were disappointed when I said that 'Leia' (aka Ella) and 'Luke' (aka Link aka me) had not figured out the mystery yet. Mia also noticed the Star Wars reference and gave me a weird look, like I purposefully wanted to cover up other names. Which I did. But I didn't want her knowing that.

"Well, what do you think?" asked Ella when Shane practically whined about a cliffhanger.

"I don't know!"

"Well, that part of the story hasn't happened yet. I'll tell you the rest when it does," I said in a voice that mocked the sophomore who'd told us the Goron legend.

Speaking of which, we were going off to the caves in just a few minutes. After putting on so many layers it was almost difficult to bend my elbows or knees, I met them all at the gate. The guide, some dude who was _way_ too happy to be there, smiled and led us up the mountain.

Ella had the hugest grin on her face as the snow began to fall. She began humming some little tune. Needless to say, it was like watching a young child on a snow day.

"You do know if your grin gets any wider your face will break?" asked Shane amusedly.

"And you know full well why I'm so happy, so shut your trap," she replied in a tone that matched his.

"Here I thought I was the harsh one," muttered Mia.

"Now, watch your step! We are not entering the first cave here because it hasn't been properly lit and mapped yet. We're almost there, though!" But according to the map we had, this was the correct cave.

"He's new on the job. We're dead," muttered Mia sarcastically. The sophomore from the bus had a wicked grin on his face.

"Betcha we'll be seeing some ghosts," he said casually.

"We'll see, idiot," replied Shane. Soon we were at the cave. It was snowing harder.

"Everyone in!" called the guide cheerfully. However, as soon as everyone was in, there was a shout. It was Gavin.

"GREGORY! ZACH! COME ON!" and they took off into the depths of the cave. Unfortunately, the booming of his voice shifted some snow at the cave's mouth, like a cartoon avalanche. With the low ceiling at the opening, we were stuck inside, snowed in in the cave.

"This cave has only one entrance. I'm afraid we'll have to stay here for a few hours before we can try to get out," said the guide.

"Sir, you read the map wrong," said the sophomore with the impish face.

"What?" he asked, panicking for a minute. He checked his map, then groaned. But before he could do anything else, a rock came flying at his head from the darkness in the cave, as if thrown. He was unconscious in seconds, but still breathing.

"What are we going to do?" whined another girl, who was obviously unhappy about being in the cave at all, especially being snowed in.

"I told you the story on the bus. This must be the cave. We're doomed," stage-whispered one person. You can guess who it was.

"Michael, you jerk!" screeched the girl who'd whined.

"Sarah, I," he stuttered. **(Sarah=Saria. Michael=Mido**.)

"The one day we get to spend together all year because we go to different schools, and THIS happens!" she said, glaring at him.

"It's not his fault," I said tiredly, "Gavin's the idiot who got us all stuck here. You guys stay here, okay? There's a bit of a breeze coming from deeper inside the cave. That means there's another way out," I said, looking down the cavern. The stone faded from the dark grey of the mountain to a tan kind that looked like sand.

"You're not going alone," Shane said immediately.

"No way," agreed Ella and Mia.

"You're all dead," continued Michael.

We set off anyway.

As we went deeper and deeper, I noticed that the slope of the ground went downward, deep into the mountain. And it was getting warmer as we went. Mia and Shane whispered to eachother as they went. So did Ella and I.

"Should we tell them that we're the ones in that little story?" I whispered.

"Only if we have proof. Which we might end up having after this little ordeal," she replied. There were two torches, somehow lit, at the end of the tunnel where it opened up a great deal. There was writing etched into the wall there.

"What's with those runes?" wondered Mia.

"It's ancient Goron writing. It looks like the stuff from history, remember?" said Shane. She nodded. I frowned. It looked like normal letters to me. Ella said so too.

"What does it say, then?" asked Mia, slightly amused. Shane's mouth became a thin line.

"_All those who enter shall gather their inner strength. _

_ Fire will consume those who will not go great lengths_

_ To save their lives_

_ To claim the prize_

_ And when their trials are done_

_ The race, the fight, the challenge won_

_ Perhaps they will live to see the light of day_

_ If they can keep fire and ice at bay."_

"I know for a fact you didn't take the Goron language lesson. Neither of you. How'd you read that correctly?" Shane asked accusingly.

"I don't know any more than you do how they did that. But the story you guys told earlier makes me wonder."

"Let's just find the way out of here, okay? And if we find Gavin and his cronies in here lost, hopefully we can drag their sorry butts along," Ella said.

The second we stepped past the torches into the cavern, though, everything changed. You know the feeling of your foot falling asleep, and then you finally pick it up—the pins and needles? That spread all over my body, and sudden tremors followed as if it was freezing. It had actually been very warm. I looked to Ella to my left—and had to look down. I was suddenly much taller. However, Ella did not stand at my side—it was Elena, the young pirates from my Goron self's memories. Which meant one thing in my case.

"Link?!" she stared at me, shocked.

"Elena?" but my voice was low and rough in comparison to what I knew it to be. I turned around to face Mia and Shane, to find two others instead.

The first was a Sheikah warrior. That was true, no question. He had the symbol in red on his chest. His blonde hair stuck out on the sides out of the bandage-like mask he wore. Fingerless gloves too, like bandages, wrapped around his hand. He had a one-piece armor suit, light and flexible. And his eyes weren't the same either—now they were blood red.

The second was simply not human. Though she had human features, her skin was dark grey, with markings of glowing cyan like some sort of tribal thing. Her face was catlike, and her hair was fiery orange. A long cloak disguised most of the rest of her outfit, though a strange crown was in her hair.

I would have asked who these people were but somehow, I knew.

"Shane and Mia, I guess I should say that Luke was Link and Leia was Ella," I said, "So apparently you two are in this as well."

"This isn't happening, right?" Shane said, looking at his hands and new outfit. But before answering, I turned to look at the cavern. It was lit. And it was no ordinary cave.

We now stood in something resembling a pueblo village, with small lava streams running on either side. Gorons that seemed to flicker like firelight wandered the village like they probably did a thousand years ago. A statue of a Goron in a heroic pose stood in the center area.

A large one with a long white beard stood in front of us.

"I don't recognize you! We don't allow foreigners in here since the last one came after our ruby. They did not survive our challenge, though."

"What is your name?" asked Elena—Ella, I mean—aw, forget it. She was the same person.

"Darunia. Darunia Septimus."

"Isn't that Darren's last name?" whispered Mia.

"I knew he was part Goron! That's why he always beat me in wrestling!" muttered Shane.

"Sure, _that's _why," Ella muttered. "You stink at wrestling."

"What are the challenges? A fight and a race?"

"And one more. An ancient maze protects the ruby. If you can defeat the monster in it as well as solve the maze, the ruby is yours and you are welcome here. However, if you fail any of the challenges, you will be left in the maze for the rest of eternity. But you have a choice. You can choose a champion to do two of the tasks, and then all go into the third. What do you plan on doing?"

We all turned to each other.

"We should all do the race," said Mia.

"No, wrestling."

"I think we should do the maze together. If there's a monster, we can have each other's backs and will notice more about the maze itself together," reasoned Ella. I nodded in agreement. The other two thought about it a while and nodded as well.

"We'll go ahead and all join in the maze," we told him.

"You all will have to die one way or another I suppose . . . follow me. I'll lead you to the race first. Who will participate?"

"I will," Ella volunteered. According to the rules, she was supposed to be the first to be at the other side of the village. No rules applied except no harming other racers.

"That won't be a problem. This edge within the cavern is the path?" she asked, pointing at the ground before her that would be perfect for Goron racing. Almost like some sort of pinball machine, it spiraled a few times around the interior of the cave before ending on the other side.

"If you want to follow the general crowd," replied Darunia. I snorted to myself. Elena? The pirate who went out of her way to run from the others on her ship, then abandoned that life completely to help a Goron? Blend in with the crowd? That was never bound to happen. She nodded and the racers all prepared. I looked across to the finish—If she was quick on her feet and careful at the same time, she could manage to leap from house to house to the other side much more quickly. And Elena was basically, in today's terms, a master at ninja moves such as these.

Darunia shouted the count off, and then they started. Elena moved in a straight line, leaping from house to house neatly. The problem would be the final jump, as the house was particularly high and the ground at the finish was far away. She then leapt—I winced, waiting to hear the crack of bones echoing throughout, but it never came. Instead, she'd landed on one of the two poles that stood to mark the finish. On one foot she stood, and then she did a neat flip to the ground from there. Cheering roared from us three as well as a few appreciative Goron ghosts.

"Everyone manages that well, though usually they get nervous, jump off the building, and break a leg," chuckled someone next to me. I forced a small laugh as that could have been Ella, which would not be funny.

"The wrestling then? It'll be against our best—me, that is," said Darunia with a big grin.

"I'd better do this, eh?" I chuckled. In all reality, this was terrifying. Darunia was almost twice my size, and I wasn't exactly scrawny in this form. We walked over to the wrestling platform.

"Be sure to grab him at the base of his arms, then toss him to the side. That's the fastest way out," one Goron whispered in my ear. For being see-through, Darunia was pretty solid when he charged at me. I took the advice of the Goron and did as he said. Within a minute and thirty two seconds, I had won.

Obviously, the maze was a gigantic stone one at the end of the cave with lava flowing on one side and ice and snow in the other, as well as some monsters roaming around and stalactites stabbing the air from the ceiling like some sort of bed of knives in the wrong direction. Shane muttered that they had better be stable.

"I'll see what I can do about this," Mia muttered. She squinted between the two paths we had in front of us. Suddenly, inky black symbols like an ancient, dead language appeared on the left. They were gone as soon as they had appeared.

"Left it is," she said.

"What was that?!" asked Shane.

"What?"

"Those . . . black . . . things!" She looked confused.

"I didn't see anything. Let's go, guys," she muttered. I didn't bother questioning. A few mishaps with flaming bats and gigantic spiders later, we stood at the center of the maze. It was a large circle, and the hissing of ice instantly becoming vapor echoed easily around it because sections of a sort of iceberg floated off of the pond we were at the edge of into a pool of lava below. Across from us was a stone tablet with writing that could only be read up close. A rope hung across from one stalactite to another, so one person could probably make it if they were careful. Along the walls, a small slanted ledge was available too, but it would be difficult unless one was a gigantic pinball . . . oh boy.

"I'll go across first," said Shane. And one by one, each of my friends swung agilely across. I was in a bit of a predicament until I remembered the rim.

"I'm coming!" Surprisingly, I rolled across without issue. Then we came to an ice-filled hallway. It looked perfectly safe, if a little slippery. Then a spirit appeared of an old woman. She had a dark cloak on, but her long nose was still visible.

"_Those who pass through here must answer my questions truthfully or suffer my army of Redeads. These are reanimated corpses that I am sure you do not want to meet. I have one question for each of you. Sheikah warrior?" _she started, pointing a long, wrinkled, bony finger at Shane.

"_When you fight, do you raise a sword or a rope?_" Duh, a sword.

"A rope. It is more versatile and I don't necessarily have to harm my opponent."

"_You, my lady," _she continued, turning to face Mia, her hand still raised.

"_If an enemy soldier is begging for mercy, do you leave him alone or finish him off?_"

"Finish him. You never know if someone is trustworthy," she said grimly, uneasily.

"_Young woman." _She paused at Ella. "_Why does your heart leap at the bitter cold? Why were you so filled with joy to come to this cursed mountain?_" Ella tensed.

"That wasn't like all the other questions. But I will answer. My mother and I used to always go to the Winter Festival together. She died a long time ago. The snow and ice reminds me of her and it helps me to remember the happier times instead of the painful ones," she said stiffly.

"_And you, Goron," _she said, facing me.

"_When an opponent fights with no honor, do you follow suit?_" Did I? Was it really that easy?

"Of course not. I don't have to stoop to their level," I responded. A glint from beneath her hood somehow told me she was smiling in a sinister way.

"_Time to test that, shall we?"_ she said. Bones rose from the snow.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" shouted Mia. She then took a deep breath and sat down. Her eyes were closed and her hands were outstretched at the ancient warriors ready to skewer us.

"Seriously, Mia? How's about we fight before the weirdo lady kills us?" shouted Shane, who took out a whiplike weapon and was dismantling skeletons one by one. One screamed and the vibrations left us frozen until it swung its sword. I ducked at the last second. Mia was still sitting, but then she muttered something I couldn't hear and flames erupted on their armor. They began to fall.

The old lady ghost dissolved, eyes wide as she dissipated into the ice, and we were alone. All of us hurried along until we reached a huge gate.

"Might as well," Mia said, muttering something to herself again before the door suddenly opened, the lock dissolving into weird black particles.

"What the . . ." Shane began to ask. He gave up instead, following her through. We were back at the village again. There were no Goron ghosts.

"She didn't finish you off?" asked a deep, scratchy male voice.

"Who are you?" I shouted. It sounded just as cheesy as you think. He chuckled. The room was suddenly cold and clammy, like after the rain and some humidity is hanging in the air even though it's cold. My head felt heavy and congested, and the thick air seemed to slow like tar in my lungs.

"I control evil. I am the king of darkness. All pain comes from me, and all men who want power or are consumed by greed worship me unknowingly. I suggest you get low to the ground and bow to me before I obliterate you all. After defeating the hag, you set free the souls that lived here once, long ago. I have been feeding off of their energy for years, and now you have destroyed my supply. However, as I know you all will be good sparring partners for my little minions . . . I don't mind letting you go now. But my little problem is that those spirits let off an energy that has collected within something I cannot reach. Unless you wish for me to make the mountain collapse so that everyone in and around it is dead, you had better find that energy. I don't need it myself, but I must find it for later. It's in the village somewhere . . ."

The cavern changed back to normal, and it was easier to breathe. I looked back and forth, surprised to find everyone back to normal.

"Maybe it's in the statue in the center square?" suggested Ella. It _had _changed. The heroic Goron was no longer there, and rather than the stone of the rest of the cave that matched desert sand, it had turned to an obsidian black. It was now the Hero of Time, without his sword, punching the air above with a fierce expression on his face. I looked at the pedestal below it. An inscription read:

_When power is given to the fierce deity,_

_ I shall finally be free_

_ A living being, that can feel, hear, and see . . ._

The voice boomed again, sucking the air out of my lungs, "Ah, this one. Poor child," he said patronizingly, "You see, this was a ghost named Benjamin who drowned long ago in the waters of that maze before it had been ice. It froze over him, and the hag trapped him here. The statue is what he possesses. He takes the form of the being that last touched the ice he was trapped under. Perhaps he might be freed when you receive your fifth forms. He'll appear there where your journey began when that happens, little heroes," his chuckling echoed out of the cavern as quiet thunder.

"Let's find that way out," suggested Mia. We looked around the village, but found nothing. I turned towards the statue and found something odd—he was no longer punching the air above him. He was pointing towards a house on my left. I went into it and climbed up to the higher floor, where a snowdrift had piled up. There was light filtering from above it. I stuck my head through the hole and could see the skiing slopes in the distance. There were three pairs of footsteps leading in that direction.

I would have cursed at Gavin and his cronies, but I was too glad to have found our way out. Instead, I thanked Ben quietly. **(A/N: I am using this character from Creepypasta on a request from a friend. He will mainly be used in a part of a later story arc, but I wanted to include him because I recently introduced my friend to this story.)** We grabbed everyone and led them back there. Sarah hugged each of us four, thanking us. Michael didn't look happy about that. Before we headed back, I looked over my shoulder at the statue of Ben. He was smirking, giving me a thumbs-up. I grinned and headed out into the bright white snow.

* * *

**I hope you guys liked this chapter. It's longer than I expected it to be...**

**(Yes, John, I introduced Ben at this point, but he will not be a main character for most of the story in this)**

**And what is up with this creepy voice? It isn't Ganon, I can assure you . . . what then?**

**Stay tuned!**


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